For Israel

End of the Kibbutz Era?

In my other weblog, I've noted the shift toward successful free-market or "ownership society" practices in mainland China and Russia - the same has happened in Israel's legendary kibbutz movement. From a 2/04 article in Israel Today:

"....Of the 267 kibbutzim (collective farms) in Israel, 165 already operate according to the new capitalist model. About 120,000 people live in kibbutzim— just 2 percent of the population. When the state was founded in 1948, the kibbutzim made up about half of the settlements in Israel and were home to 8 percent of the Jewish population....

At the kibbutz, the principles of communism were far more successfully implemented than in communist countries. To enable mothers to work, the kibbutz ran children’s houses. The kibbutz took care of all its members’ daily needs, so for example, meals were eaten together in the dining hall. But as Israel advanced economically, the second and third generations of kibbutzniks did not want to live this way ....During the 1980s, many kibbutzim encountered serious financial difficulties and faced debt and bankruptcy. The reasons were runaway inflation, the Israeli bank shares crash of 1983 and poor management of the kibbutzim themselves. The crisis forced the government to bail out the kibbutzim in 1989 and broker a deal for debt restructuring with the banks. This led to a fundamental reorganization of the kibbutzim in which they turned away from agriculture and toward more profitable industry, including high-tech.

Many of my comrades in the army in the 1980s, who were second-generation kibbutzniks, wanted to leave the kibbutz after three years of military service. They wanted to earn their own money like people in the cities and not toil day-in, day-out like their parents, without any assets to show for it. In those days, if one wanted to visit friends for example, one had to order a car two weeks in advance from the kibbutz secretary. Young kibbutzniks were jealous of the freedom of city dwellers who had their own car...."

I believe that if you looked at the history of many utopian groups, you'd find that they disappeared within 2-3 generations, and rarely represented large groups when such alleged utopias were voluntary. Trying to fulfill an absolute ideal that we're all alike, and should all share identically, violates the reality that we're actually different, with different skills, abilities, interests, and that groups value those skills, abilities and interests differently at any moment in time. Currently, the more financially successful kibbutzim in Israel incorporate some wealth accumulation and for-profit businesses, and that trend is likely to continue.

posted by ninelives @ 6:42 AM